This invention relates to solder-bearing contacts, terminal elements and leads, particularly for use with multiple-contact connectors and electronic circuit boards, and for surface-mounted devices.
In the electronic equipment industry, an important necessity is the rapid and accurate assembly of leads, terminals and contacts with the contact pads of printed circuit boards or other substrates. For convenience of connecting such elements, it has previously been suggested to facilitate the soldering of their connection by securing a solder slug or mass to one of the elements so that, when positioned in engagement with the other element and heated, the molten solder will cover the adjacent surfaces of both elements to form when cooled a soldered joint providing both a mechanical coupling and an electrical connection between the elements. Various arrangements of solder-holding elements are disclosed in Seidler U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,120,558 and 4,203,648, in each of which a lead has a finger struck from it, for holding the solder mass to the lead.
However, as the art tends toward greater miniaturization in this field, there has been a reduction in the size of and spacing between the contact pads on printed circuit boards, for example, requiring corresponding reduction in the size and spacing of the leads for connection thereto.